Monday, April 24, 2006

Careful what you wish for

11/26/05 - The Dept. of Labor has classified truck driving as unskilled labor. This unskilled labeling shapes the recruitment of new entrants as well as the training, pay, professionalism and social status of all American truck drivers. Furthermore, many other Western societies have already upgraded truck driving to a skilled occupation. Join our round-table discussion concerning the illogicality and deleterious effects of the DOL's ruling. Discussants: Owner-operators, Lyndon Nutt (30 years of experience)and Glen White (35 years of experience), Company Driver, Jimmy Frost, (15 years), Owner-operator, Ruth Jaroe, (6 years) and our new owner/operator, Warren Lark. After listening to this show, we hope that you will get involved to help us change this classification.

American Trucking Association (ATA) chairman Pat Quinn as quoted in The Trucker April 15-30,2006 "Non matter where you find Pat Quinn, He's promoting the Trucking Industry" by Lyndon Finney

"One of the issues we have with the classification of jobs in our Federal laws is that truck driving is not listed as a skilled job; therefore you cannot import legally like Canada does. .... I think that a change in the classification of the labor law could be helpful in letting us import skilled potential truck drivers for our industry."

The ATA and the Billy Big Riggers are on the same side of an issue. Unsurprisingly, the ATA's objective is not the same as the BBR's.